This invention relates to coupling and decoupling of pinions and shafts.
Traditionally, pinions, particularly overhung pinions adapted for use with integral gearmotors, have been very difficult to remove from the shafts to which they are drivingly coupled. Removal may be occasioned by the need for servicing or for changing the gear size of the pinion. Typically in gear motor installations an integral shaft of a pinion is force-fitted (i.e. interference fit) into a longitudinal bore of the motor shaft. Heretofore, removing the pinion has required it to be forced out of the motor shaft. This has often required specialized tools for extracting the pinion, during use of which damage can occur to the pinion and/or the drive shaft.
Further specialized equipment is often required in initially fitting a pinion shaft into a longitudinal bore of a drive shaft. Since an interference fit is often used (thereby requiring tight tolerances between the pinion shaft and the drive shaft bore), the aforementioned specialized equipment must be used to help guide the pinion shaft into such bore since it can not independently support itself during such fitting.
The present invention recognizes and addresses such drawbacks, and others, of prior pinion coupling arrangements.